Social reporting by islamic banks

The last thirty years have witnessed the appearance and rapid expansion of Islamic banking both inside and outside the Islamic world. Islamic banks provide financial products that do not violate Sharia , the Islamic law of human conduct. The Islamic principles upon which the banks claim to operate give an important role to social issues. Applying these principles, we develop a benchmark set of social disclosures appropriate to Islamic banks. These are then compared, using a disclosure index approach, the actual social disclosures contained in the annual reports of twenty-nine Islamic banks (located in sixteen countries) to this benchmark. In addition, content analysis is undertaken to measure the volume of social disclosures. Our analysis suggests that social reporting by Islamic banks falls significantly short of our expectations. The results of the analysis also suggest that banks required to pay the Islamic religious tax Zakah provide more social disclosures than banks not subject to Zakah .     

企业价值来源及其理论研究

随着时代变化 ,价值来源的范围不断扩大。本文从企业角度 ,对劳动价值理论、资本价值理论、客户价值理论的基本思想和价值产生机理进行了阐述 ,指出三种价值理论是一个完整的体系 ,只是在不同时期、不同企业 ,主体地位不同而已。从劳动价值理论、资本价值理论为主转向客户价值理论为主 ,将成为指导企业发展的必然走势。     

企业经营的价值构成与战略权衡

企业为顾客所提供的产品或服务的总价值由顾客价值与企业价值构成。相对于同业中的竞争者或历史上的企业自身，如果企业更能创造顾客价值，则可认为企业有当下经营优势；如果企业更能创造顾客价值与企业价值，则可认为企业有持续经营优势。顾客价值与企业价值是企业经营过程中既对立又统一的两个方面。如何跨期考虑顾客价值与企业价值之间的比例关系，是企业应该而且必须做出的战略权衡。     

油田相关行业用户满意指数测评模型与方法研究

用户满意指数是一种全新的宏观经济指标和产品质量评价指标，是企业经营业绩的主要评定内容建立在用户满意指数测评模型理论基础上，借鉴国内外用户满意指数测评体系方法，结合油田的具体特点，构建出油田装备(耐用)行业、油田消耗品(非耐用)行业、第三产业的用户满意指数测评模型。模型反映出各结构变量之间以及结构变量与对应观测变量之间的相互关系：提出了用统计分析系统的含隐变量线性结构方程的协方差分析过程求解该测评模型，揭示了各结构变量之间的相互依赖程度，计算出各个结构变量的指数，最后，对油田某装备的用户满意指数测评结果进行了分析，为企业改进产品质量、提高服务质量提供了切实可行的信息     

Genetic risk and value

A conceptual truth about risks is that they involve a possible and future adverse effect or a negative value of some kind. The genetic risks that individuals may face in the health care setting differ in some crucial respects to other kind of risks. The aims of this paper are to analyse the notion of value in the context of genetic risk in the setting of health care, and to suggest a conception of the evaluative aspect of genetic risk that is fruitful for genetic risk information. Two influential and relevant approaches to value, preferentialism and the capability approach, are discussed in the light of certain distinctive features of genetic risk and a third, a sensibility theory of value is suggested. According to this view, the concept of risk is a so-called ‘thick’ evaluative concept that has both a world-guiding function as well as an action-guiding or normative function. It is argued that this provides a more promising way to think about genetic risks in the clinical setting.     

顾客集中与管理层治理——基于薪酬契约和代理成本的视角

本文以创业板上市公司为研究样本，从薪酬契约和代理成本的视角，检验了顾客集中与管理层治理的关系。实证分析结果显示，顾客集中度与高管薪酬和代理成本存在显著负相关关系。结果表明：顾客集中显著影响公司薪酬契约，顾客集中降低了高管薪酬；顾客集中降低代理成本，减轻管理层代理冲突问题。这些研究结论丰富了公司治理的理论内容，同时对于缓解公司代理冲突、改善公司治理矛盾具有重要的现实意义。     

Integrated landscape initiatives in Europe: Multi-sector collaboration in multi-functional landscapes

Landscapes are linked to human well-being in a multitude of ways, some of which are challenged by global market forces and traditional management approaches. In response to this situation there has been a rise in local initiatives to sustain the values of landscape. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic analysis of the spectrum of these initiatives in Europe in terms of patterns of organisation, participants, resources, problems, and landscape values addressed. This review collects examples of integrated landscape initiatives from all over Europe through systematic internet key word searches and canvassing of European umbrella organisations; followed by an online survey of representatives from the identified initiatives (n = 71). Our results show that the most relevant characteristics of integrated landscape initiatives in Europe are: a holistic approach to landscape management (acting in multifunctional landscapes and combining different objectives), the involvement and coordination of different sectors and stakeholders at many levels, and the role as agents of awareness raising and learning hubs. Integrated landscape initiatives mainly depend on impulses of local civil society. Identified barriers to their work include a lack of funding and institutional support. Therefore, political and societal action is needed to increase their effectiveness.     

Price Discrimination with Private and Imperfect Information

In this paper, I investigate the competitive and welfare effects of the improvements in information accuracy in markets where firms can price discriminate after observing a private and noisy signal about a consumer's brand preference. I show that when firms believe that consumers have a brand preference for them, then they charge more to these consumers, and this price has an inverse U‐shaped relationship with the signal's accuracy. In contrast, the price charged after a disloyal signal has been observed falls as the signal's accuracy rises. While industry profit and overall welfare fall monotonically when price discrimination is based on increasingly more accurate information, the reverse happens to consumer surplus.     

Balance sheet conservatism and audit reporting conservatism

Financial reports are prepared on a going‐concern (GC) basis rather than a liquidation basis even when companies are highly distressed. This allows distressed companies to report book values of assets that greatly exceed their liquidation values, implying a lack of conservatism in the balance sheet. We argue that auditors issue going‐concern opinions in order to warn investors about this lack of balance sheet conservatism. This argument leads to two testable hypotheses. First, for companies that are at risk of bankruptcy, auditors are more likely to issue GC opinions when the book values of assets under the GC assumption are high relative to the expected liquidation values of assets (i.e., when the GC assumption causes the balance sheet to lack conservatism). Second, for companies that enter bankruptcy, the issuance of a prior GC opinion has predictive information content with respect to the wedge between the book values of assets and the future liquidation values of those same assets. Our results strongly support both hypotheses. The findings are important because they indicate that conservative audit reporting helps to compensate for a lack of conservatism in the balance sheet, which arises because the GC assumption permits the book values of assets to exceed their liquidation values.     

Customer Interaction Management Capabilities on the Micro-Retail Fashion in Indonesia

This article aims to investigate and examine Customer Interaction Management Capabilities (CIMaC) as mediator in the relation of Market Intelligence Quality (MIQ) and Customer-Centric Commitment (CCC) with New Product Performance (NPP). A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to test the empirical research design, using the data retrieved from micro-retail owners in Central Java, Indonesia. A Confirmatory Factor Model is used to test the multi-dimensionality of a theoretical construct (construct validity test). The findings show that only MIQ influences NPP, while CCC does not. However, CIMaC genuinely mediate the relationship between MIQ and CCC with NPP. By investigating the literature of various market learning, CRM, NPD, and entrepreneurship, this study offers a unique analysis about the market intelligence quality, customer-centric commitment and its impacts on customer interaction management capability, and the new product performance. Conceptual discussion and empiric results explore the previous research about market orientation culture on micro businesses.